Chapter 654: 644 Come Back Alive

"Who has the highest rank?" the officer asked.

Zhao Yunlong stepped forward, marching with a strong, resonant step.

The officer handed a satellite phone to Zhao Yunlong and said, "Form the Sharp Blade Squad, go assess the situation, follow the routes assigned and arranged by the Command Center, and enter the mountainous area."

According to pre-earthquake maps and administrative region maps, search for those towns and villages in the mountains.

Then, using GPS to guide, bring out all villagers who can be led and evacuated; for those who cannot be brought out, record the situation, move them to a relatively safe nearby location, then return to report the situation and await the frontline headquarters to dispatch a more suitable rescue team.

"Yes!" Zhao Yunlong stood at attention and shouted.

The officer remained silent, locking eyes with Zhao Yunlong, showing only resolve, no flinching.

"You…… come back alive."

Just as he finished speaking, the earth trembled, and a low, despairing sound could be faintly heard from beneath the ground.

The ground surged again like waves, the hard runway was torn open, and the cracking sounds of the broken concrete pavement kept ringing out.

Zheng Ren swayed, then immediately steadied himself, eyes fixed ahead, striving to keep his stance like that of a soldier.

"Everyone present, turn right—march! Run—go!" Zhao Yunlong quickly adjusted his stance, stepped onto the surging ground, and said with difficulty.

The aftershocks were not only numerous to the point of being dense, but also strong in intensity.

In the span of over ten minutes, the aftershocks kept coming. Although strong, compared to the mountain collapses, these aftershocks were relatively mild.

Zhao Yunlong was young and capable, well-trained, and immediately began organizing the troops, jogging to the vehicle convoy.

The TV station's reporter and cameraman exchanged a glance, quickly discussed, then followed closely with their equipment.

"You follow the next wave." Zhao Yunlong's thick brows knotted into a rope as he spoke in a low voice.

"Sorry, this is our duty," said the female reporter and host. She was afraid, yet she stubbornly persisted.

Along the way, after an aftershock, the female reporter fell twice; the refined poise of the city lady vanished, leaving only dust on her body and a stubborn expression on her face.

Though she looked somewhat disheveled, she still persisted.

It was all part of the mission; Zhao Yunlong had no choice but to bring along the cameraman and the female reporter.

There seemed to be many vehicles, but they were also tense.

Six or seven people per vehicle went to the military supplies piled like a mountain, each taking a military individual medical kit, water, food, etc., changing into fitting or ill-fitting camouflage uniforms, and set off proudly.

Zheng Ren, Zhao Yunlong, Su Yun, and others shared a vehicle; his brows were tightly furrowed. After leaving the airport, he opened the first-aid kit, glanced at it, and asked, "Chief Zhao, are these all the supplies?"

"Yes." Zhao Yunlong replied.

Zheng Ren was speechless; this was battlefield first-aid equipment, insufficient in quantity and variety. It could handle emergencies, but facing large numbers of casualties would likely leave them helpless.

The individual first-aid kit contained: one 24×28 cm mouth-to-mouth respiration membrane, one 33 cm rubber tourniquet, one 5×400 cm medical bandage roll, one pack of 20×10 cm hemostatic pads, emergency hemostatic gauze, folded dressing, a 14G chest decompression needle, a nasopharyngeal airway, disposable gloves, two morphine syringes, syringes, iodine povidone, cotton swabs, and items like a rescue whistle.

This is definitely insufficient; even if encountering casualties on the road, it would likely be exhausted after just a few steps.

"Comrade Zheng Ren, the Sharp Blade Squad's mission is to assess the situation, not to conduct rescue." Zhao Yunlong explained: "We need to use the satellite phone and GPS equipment to mark locations for the rear; then rescue supplies and personnel will arrive."

Our most important role is to judge how much emergency medical supplies a location needs, how many doctors are required for rescue, and to organize accordingly. If possible, we will be the first batch of doctors to go deep into the epicenter, and we will do whatever we can when we get there.

Zhao Yunlong did not address Zheng Ren as Chief Zheng or Boss Zheng, but called him Comrade Zheng Ren.

Zheng Ren thought it seemed so, nodded, and remained silent.

The vehicle kept shaking; although the road was clearly flat, the vibration was obvious.

This is an aftershock, at least magnitude 5. Zheng Ren could not imagine how strong the aftershocks would get as they went further toward the epicenter.

Zhao Yunlong picked up a military map, pointed ahead, and said, "Our target is Nanchuan Town, about seventy kilometers from the airport, a normal drive of one hour twenty minutes."

"How long do you think we can keep driving?" Su Yun asked.

"We can't possibly get there that way." The driver, focusing on driving, said, "That side's quake is worse than Rongcheng's; it's said to be two fault lines. All the roads along the way are ruined, with about twenty kilometers where you'll have to proceed on foot. Before, it was like that, with stones constantly falling from the mountains on both sides; now we estimate we'll have to walk forty to fifty kilometers."

Everyone fell silent, staring blankly at the surrounding ground that would occasionally undulate like waves.

Once in the mountains, just how dangerous such aftershocks are is easy to imagine.

Even without mountain collapses, if a stone falls from above and hits the head, a person is done for. Even if it doesn't strike a vital spot, wherever it lands will surely cause disability.

Zheng Ren took a deep breath, then closed his eyes.

"Are you scared?" Su Yun forced herself to stay calm and asked.

"Not scared, just a bit dizzy." Zheng Ren said: "First time getting motion sickness."

Indeed, the vehicle jolted terribly; the military jeep drove somewhat wildly on the "waves."

In the hospital, emergency care is handled by one person; here, the number needing emergency care runs into the hundreds of thousands.

Sichuan is a semi-karst landscape; the so-called safe areas are merely relatively flat, and in frequent aftershocks the terrain won't be directly altered to cause landslides or landslide-dam lake zones.

And the so-called safe zones, during aftershocks, are places where even standing is unstable.

"Comrade, did you drive in after the quake?" Zhao Yunlong, sitting in the passenger seat, asked for details.

"I did." The driver's face was grim, as if brewing a storm.

Zhao Yulong didn't know the circumstances; facing resistance, he couldn't inquire in detail.

Along the road lay a scene of chaos; people who had luckily escaped the earthquake wandered, searching for family in confusion—some wept, many more stared blankly at their surroundings. One after another, many taxis and private cars left the city, picking up the injured and taking them to hospitals.

These casualties' injuries were not serious; they counted as the fortunate few who had luckily escaped.

Just as the driver said, following the highway they couldn't even go fifty kilometers before leaving the city, after which the road broke off completely.

The military jeep struggled through the wreckage, jolting even more severely; only by desperately gripping the vehicle frame and any point of leverage could one avoid being thrown out.

But once they entered the mountainous area, the jeep could no longer move forward.

"I can only take you this far." The driver said with a grim face, "Be careful; when I came this afternoon, this place wasn't like this."

Zhao Yunlong nodded.

"That way." The driver pointed to a distant stretch of rocks and said in a muffled voice, "Yesterday it was still a town; now it's completely gone."